1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a control device for a vehicle.
2. Related Art
A control device for a vehicle has been disclosed which performs control to change a characteristic of the driving force of a subject vehicle which is generated in response to an accelerator operation of the driver, on the basis of the traveling states of a preceding vehicle traveling ahead of the subject vehicle and the subject vehicle. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2008-87562 proposes a control device that, when the velocity of the subject vehicle is higher than the velocity of the preceding vehicle, makes the driving force of the subject vehicle generated in response to a driving force operation weaker than when the vehicle velocity of the subject vehicle is not higher than the vehicle velocity of the preceding vehicle.
When there is a preceding vehicle ahead of the subject vehicle, the control device described in JP-A No. 2008-87562 can correct an electronic throttle characteristic to suppress the driving force on the basis of the current inter-vehicle distance, the vehicle velocity of the subject vehicle, and the relative velocity of the preceding vehicle and the subject vehicle. Meanwhile, when the preceding vehicle goes away from the subject vehicle, the control device described in JP-A No. 2008-87562 performs control to restore the electronic throttle characteristic to the normal electronic throttle characteristic.
The control device described in JP-A No. 2008-87562 restores the electronic throttle characteristic to the normal electronic throttle characteristic soon, or more slowly and gradually by using a timer. It is possible that keeping the accelerator off for a while after the preceding vehicle goes away restores the electronic throttle characteristic to the normal characteristic by the time the accelerator is turned on again not only when the electronic throttle characteristic is restored to the normal characteristic soon, but also when the electronic throttle characteristic is gradually restored to the normal characteristic. If the driver steps on the accelerator in the same way as the last accelerator operation in this case, the vehicle would accelerate more than expected and consume more fuel.